Page 74 of Echoes of Us
Different timeline, she reminded herself again.But this time, the words felt hollow.
The moments kept collecting, though Ashley refused to acknowledge them for what they were.
For example, when he found her in the library late one night, surrounded by psychology texts and empty coffee cups, without a word, he'd cleared a space across from her and pulled out his own work.Hours passed in comfortable silence, broken only by the soft whisper of turning pages.If she caught herself watching his hands as he took notes, the way his fingers curved around his pen, well - she was just tired.Everything looked interesting after midnight.
Or the time she caught him teaching first-years about wave functions.She'd meant to just drop off some papers for Dale but found herself lingering in the doorway, watching Cole's hands move through the air as he explained complex theories with surprising patience.He'd looked up, caught her eye mid-explanation, and stumbled over his words.She told herself it was just professional admiration - he'd make a good professor someday.
These little moments meant nothing.Cole had Marie.Ashley had her resolution to keep things professional.And if sometimes she found herself remembering how his cologne smelled when he reached past her for equipment or how his voice changed when it was just the two of them talking late in the lab - well, that was just muscle memory.Her body remembered another Cole.
Tonight was no different.They'd ended up alone in the lab again, something that seemed to happen more often lately.Ashley sat cross-legged on her usual counter, reading through practice patient files for one of her courses while Cole worked on his research.The quiet felt comfortable, lived-in, until she heard him curse softly.
"Problem?"she asked, looking up to find him shaking his right hand.
"Just a burn from the equipment.It's fine."
She moved to help without thinking - a natural response, she told herself.Nothing to do with how his hands had been distracting her all evening.
"Let me see."
"It's nothing-" he started, but she'd already taken his hand in hers.
The touch was clinical and professional - she'd treated minor burns before.If her heart beat faster when her fingers wrapped around his wrist, that was just...concern.Professional concern.
"You should run this under cold water," she said, her voice steady despite the weird flutter in her stomach.
"Ashley."The way he said her name made her look up.He was closer than she'd realized, his eyes dark in the lab's fluorescent lighting.
"Yes?"
His free hand moved toward her face, hesitating just inches from her cheek.She could feel the heat of it, could see something unfamiliar in his expression.
Then his phone buzzed.The sound snapped Ashley back to reality.She dropped his hand like it burned, stepping back quickly.What was she doing?
As she watched him answer his phone, turning away to speak softly to his girlfriend, Ashley pushed down whatever that moment had been.She was just projecting - seeing her Cole in his gestures, hearing her husband in his voice.That's all this was.
That's all it could be.
* * *
Candlelight caught in wine glasses,turning the physics department's end-of-semester dinner into something almost magical.Ashley leaned against a window, the glass cool against her bare shoulder, watching the scene unfold like a photograph she'd seen in another life.
The sound of laughter drew her attention.Cole held court with a cluster of professors, his tie slightly loosened, cheeks flushed with wine.Without Marie here tonight, he seemed somehow more himself - or at least what she'd thought was himself.
He gestured as he spoke about quantum mechanics, and Ashley's wine glass froze halfway to her lips.The way his wrist turned, how his fingers traced invisible equations...she'd seen that gesture before, just moments ago, from across the room, from Dale.
Margaret Westwood moved between her sons like a ghost in cream silk, touching Cole's arm in that particular way she had.The same touch Ashley had watched her give Dale earlier like she was steadying herself against something only she could see.
Cole smiled in response - that gentle, measured smile that had always made Ashley's heartache.
Dale's smile.
The wine turned to ash in her mouth as memories crashed through her: Cole sprawled in a library chair those first weeks, bursting with unhinged energy and vigor.That Cole would have shot back answers with quicksilver wit would have made the professors either love him or hate him but never ignore him.That Cole burned too bright to be ignored.
This Cole paused before speaking, considered his words with careful precision.Like his brother.
Exactly like his brother.
Her hands trembled as she set down her glass, eyes tracking between the twins.How had she never noticed?The way they both touched their signet rings when thinking.How their laughs had started to mirror each other.Even the way they shifted their weight when listening - a perfect echo.
